TOKYO -- The bitter battle over control of Tokyo Broadcasting System Inc. heated up Wednesday after Internet shopping mall operator Rakuten Inc. petitioned the Tokyo District Court for access to the television firm's accounting records.
TBS has refused twice before to hand over its financial records.
Specifically, TBS has denied access to details of cross-shareholding deals that Rakuten claims kept it from profit.
Rakuten claims TBS sold shares to firms it could count on not to resell them, thereby keeping them away from Rakuten.
The legal move comes a day after broadcasters affiliated with TBS expressed their opposition to Rakuten's stated ambition of increasing its share in the company to more than 20%.
Such an increase would enable Rakuten to consolidate TBS' accounts into its own figures, effectively turning it into an arm of the online services firm.
"Rakuten should release its shareholdings in TBS and then seek to establish a business alliance with the company," Masahiro Yamamoto, president of Mainichi Broadcasting, said at a news conference in Tokyo.
TBS has refused twice before to hand over its financial records.
Specifically, TBS has denied access to details of cross-shareholding deals that Rakuten claims kept it from profit.
Rakuten claims TBS sold shares to firms it could count on not to resell them, thereby keeping them away from Rakuten.
The legal move comes a day after broadcasters affiliated with TBS expressed their opposition to Rakuten's stated ambition of increasing its share in the company to more than 20%.
Such an increase would enable Rakuten to consolidate TBS' accounts into its own figures, effectively turning it into an arm of the online services firm.
"Rakuten should release its shareholdings in TBS and then seek to establish a business alliance with the company," Masahiro Yamamoto, president of Mainichi Broadcasting, said at a news conference in Tokyo.
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